Claire Radcliff
| image = File:Claire Radcliff 001.jpg | imagewidth = 225px | known aliases = None | category = ; | gender = | base of operations = The Gates, Washington | known relatives = Dylan Radcliff (husband); Emily Radcliff (daughter) | year of birth = Unknown | year of death = N/A | first appearance = The Gates: Pilot | played by = Rhona Mitra }} Claire Radcliff is a fictional vampire and one of the main characters on the ABC television series The Gates. Played by actress Rhona Mitra, the character was introduced in the series pilot episode. Biography Claire Radcliff was originally from New York, where she lived with her entrepreneur husband Dylan and her adopted daughter Emily. At some point prior to Emily's birth, Dylan revealed himself to be a vampire and turned Claire into a vampire as well. However, Claire did not maintain the same self control over her vampiric urges as her husband, and he often found himself cleaning up after her and correcting her mistakes. Dylan knew that in order to properly safeguard his wife and child, he had to move them to a more secure location. In 2004, they settled down in a nice, upper-middle class home in the insular community known as The Gates. Moving to The Gates helped to shield them from the outside world and enabled Dylan the ability to procure blood from his Biotech firm to satiate his wife's needs. Claire and Dylan moved to The Gates when Emily was only a few months old, as revealed in "The Monster Within". The series establishes that Emily is six-years-old when she is first introduced. Claire befriended several individuals in The Gates, but she also met those who would prove to be her rivals. The town physician, Peg Mueller, had a keen knowledge of the supernatural and learned that Claire was a vampire. She was able to provide her with holistic treatments to help curb her unique appetites. One of Peg's former students however, the witch Devon Buckley, did not care for Claire at all, and saw her only as a means to achieving her own goals. Devon likewise knew that Claire was a vampire, and used this knowledge to issue veiled threats to Claire from time to time. In the Autumn of 2009, Claire was returning home from her husband's laboratory with a container of blood when she spilled some of it across her sleeve and the front of her shirt. She was pulled over by a police officer, but told him that she suffered from chronic nose bleeds. Claire didn't want her husband to learn of this incident, so she paid police chief David Phelps a handsome sum of money to destroy the report. In 2010, Claire met a contractor named Mark Woodbury. Woodbury had been driving through the neighborhood when he nearly struck Emily with his truck. He swerved to avoid her, but collided with a power box, causing a severe laceration on his head. Claire invited him inside her house to tend to his injuries, but the sight of his blood proved too much for her. Using her feminine charm to seduce him, she drank Mark's blood, killing him. She hid the body in a wine room, but when her husband learned what she had done, he was forced to dispose of the remains in a more efficient manner. It wasn't long before Claire's actions resulted in several tense moments in her life. A missing persons report was filed on Woodbury, which earned the attention of The Gates' new police chief Nick Monohan. Monohan interviewed Claire concerning the contractor, but she told him that after she helped to stitch him up, he drove away. However, Nick later found video footage of Claire driving Woodbury's truck out of The Gates. Suspicious of her actions, he tried to get a search warrant for the Radcliff residence, but was turned down. With this setback, Monohan decided to inspect Claire's home on his own. Claire awakened in the middle of the night when she heard Nick skulking about the perimeter of their house. Bearing her fangs, she was prepared to leap out and attack him, but Dylan intercepted Monohan and convinced him to leave without raising any further suspicion. ("Pilot") It was during this time that Devon Buckley decided to add even more pressure on Claire's life. One of Claire's neighbors, Jessica Cooper, witnessed her trying to hide Woodbury's truck in her garage. She told Devon about it who used her knowledge of witchcraft to remove the knowledge of the event from her mind. Devon relayed the information to Claire, citing that the effect was only temporary and that her memory could return at any time. Claire reluctantly asked her what it would take to make the spell more permanent. With a devlish grin, Devon told her that she needed a vial of her blood. Claire didn't believe her, but she recognized that Devon was not a woman to be trifled with. After considering her options at length, she relented and gave Devon the blood she had asked for. ("What Lies Beneath") A short time later, Claire was reunited with a man from her past - a vampire named Christian Harper. Harper had come to The Gates to expand his private consulting business and ran into Claire at Spenser's Market. Claire agreed to go to dinner with him to catch up on old times and his presence reminded her of the life she led before moving to The Gates. After dinner, Claire followed Christian outside where she found him drinking the blood of a young woman. He invited her to join him and Claire could not resist the allure of drinking fresh human blood. ("Breach") Claire found another opportunity for a private rendezvous with Christian shortly thereafter. While Dylan took Emily to the annual Father/Daughter dance, Claire met Christian at a lounge outside The Gates. She enjoyed spending time with him because he reminded her of the sort of person that she used to be, but she also felt guilty about deceiving Dylan. While at the lounge, Claire and Christian ran into a woman named Barbara Jansen. Barbara was a resident of The Gates and had cultivated a reputation for being the town gossip. She made a barbed comment to Claire about spending time with another man and Claire knew that there was a strong chance that she might expose her secret to her husband. Christian offered to solve the problem for her, but Claire knew that he intended on killing Barbara. He asked him not to resort to such desperate measures. ("The Monster Within") Claire continued to help out at various fund raisers at Gates Academy and became closer friends with Sarah Monohan. On the same day that Sarah accepted a job at the school, Claire had another run-in with Barbara Jansen, who made another barbed remark about Claire's extra-curricular activities. That evening, Claire learned that her husband had killed a woman named Teresa Goodwin who was threatening to kill Chief Monohan. Now that Monohan knew the truth about the Radcliff's vampiric natures, Claire insisted that Dylan should do everything he can to make an ally of Nick rather than an enemy. ("Repercussions") Claire discovered that Barbara Jansen had turned up dead - the apparent victim of a vampire. She immediately suspected Christian and privately sought him out to learn the truth. Christian defended himself, swearing that he kept his promise to Claire and that he never touched Barbara. If Christian was to be believed, then it meant that another vampire was hunting within The Gates. Ironically, Dylan met up with Christian on his own and invited him over to the house for dinner. Dylan was completely unaware of Claire's secret meetings with him and Claire was greatly disturbed to see him inside her house. After dinner, Claire and Christian had a few moments alone. She pinned him against a wall and demanded to know why he had come. Again, Christian played innocent, swearing that Dylan had invited him over. Afterward, Claire told him that she never wanted to see him again. Claire later attended an art auction being held at Devon's spa. She disliked having anything at all to do with the witch, but agreed to be there as a favor to Sarah Monohan. After the auction closed, Devon made a spectacle of herself, embarrassing several people. Claire found her behavior "pathetic... but predictable". ("Jurisdiction") Sarah Monohan invited Claire over to her house for a pool party. Knowing who else was going to be in attendance, and considering her aversion to sunlight, she really did not wish to go, but consented out of the sake of friendship. As expected, Claire found herself trading barbs once again with her rival Karen Crezski. Crezski later went to Claire's home to tell her something important concerning Sarah. She had learned that Sarah had been consuming a lot of Devon's tainted tea and the two women agreed to temporarily bury the hatchet in order to help their friend. They went to Sarah's house to stage an intervention and warned her about Devon's unscrupulous practices. ("Digging the Dirt") Claire Radcliff returned home one evening and found Christian Harper in her house playing with Emily. After sending Emily upstairs, she grew very upset with Christian, reminding him that they could no longer continue to see one another. Christian had other plans however and told Claire that she was to meet him at his house for dinner at 8:00 or else he would tell Dylan the truth about their secret meetings. Claire went to Christian's and he gave her a ring - an heirloom that once belonged to his grandmother. He lamented the fact that Dylan was the one who turned Claire and not he. He believed that because of Dylan, Claire forgot what it was like to be a proper vampire. Claire grew angry with him and turned to leave, but Christian attacked her, biting her on the throat and drinking her blood. This broke the mystical bond that she shared with her husband and Dylan instinctively became aware that something was wrong. When she returned home, she finally confessed the truth to her husband and told him that she had been hunting with Christian outside The Gates. Although Dylan could forgive most of Claire's transgressions, this act of betrayal drove a serious wedge between them. ("Dog Eat Dog") Notes & Trivia * The character of was created by Grant Scharbo and Richard Hatem. * First vampire shown on the series. See also External Links * * Claire Radcliff at ABC.com References ----